Read My Tears
by MeGkAtHeRiNe
Summary: Re-upload! He's helped people before. Can Dr. Phlurp help a young marriage thats already on its way to divorce?
1. Chapter 1

Emily felt as if her eyes would just slip right out of her skull if she rolled them one more time, and she shook her head as she held her gurgling baby to her chest. "Aaron would you please stop pacing for just a minute?"

The older man gave a laugh before glaring towards the brunette. "Don't tell me what to do, Emily."

"I didn't tell you to do anything."

"Oh yes you did."

Emily shook her head as she tried to get comfortable in the chair she sat in. "All I did was as-"

"I know what you've been doing for years and years, Emily! Don't try and convince me otherwise."

The brunette felt her eyes sting as she softened her voice, trying not to wake her son who sat in the chair beside her. "Aaron please lower your voice."

Hotch let out a huff before shaking his head once more. "You're lucky you have our daughter and son with you. We'd be screaming at the top of our lungs if we were home."

"Hotchners?"

Both brunettes turned to the sound of a younger man calling their names before they stood. "Yes?"

"He's ready for you."

Emily set her daughter in Rossi's niece's arms before smiling down to the young girl. "Thank you again for coming to watch the kids, Marelle. I promise to pay you so much more than I usually do for babysitting."

The fifteen year old smiled up to the brunette woman before shaking her head. "Its fine, Mrs. Hotchner."

Emily turned and straightened her blazer, giving the slightest nod to her husband as he stepped out of the way for her to enter first. "Thank you."

Hotch sealed his lips before nodding his head, following his wife out onto the stage that they would be sitting on for at least the next hour.

Dr. Phlurp gave a warm smile to the brunette woman that walked down past the audience and shook his head, and he did the same with the younger man before having them sit on the couches he had set up for them. He watched as the couple kept their eyes down in their laps as the clip of them in their household played in the background, shaking his head slightly when he saw a tear roll down the Mrs. cheek.

_"Don't talk about our son like that, Aaron!"_

_Hotch shook his head. "He's **my** son, Emily!"_

_"You can't just say he's yours every time that you and I disagree. I adopted him; he's mine too!"_

_"He and our daughter will be mine until you learn to keep your pants on!"_

_Emily's eyes widened before hardening her gaze on the older man. "Stop bringing up my past, Aaron."_

_"Why don't you stop givin' it to every guy that looks your way?"_

_"Why don't you stop drinking?"_

The video clip then slowed to a stop.

"Well if ya'll can see, these two clearly have it cut out for them." Dr. Phlurp looked over to young woman on his right and smiled. "So you're Emily?"

Emily gave a nod. "I am."

He then looked over to the brunette man on his left. "And you're Aaron?"

"Yes I am."

"Alright, now when did this all start?"

Emily fiddled with her fingers in her lap. "About a year ago."

Hotch felt anger rise in his chest as he looked over towards his wife. "Tell him why, Emily."

Dr. Phlurp held up his hand to the man on his left. "I think your wife can speak for herself, Mr. Hotchner."

"I'm sorry."

Emily bit her lip, looking up to the television host with watering eyes. "I had an affair with someone just before I found out I was pregnant with our daughter."

Dr. Phlurp gave a nod. "Your three month old daughter. Allison, right?"

"Right."

"And do you know if Allison is Aaron's biological daughter?"

Emily did her best to give a steady nod to the older man. "Yes, she is."

"And your son Jack is eight now, right?"

Hotch shook his head. "He's seven. He'll turn eight in about three months."

Dr. Phlurp looked back over to the woman. "And he's your stepson, correct?"

"Yes he is."

"Ok, now what in the heck are you two fighting about? Its three months after your daughter was born, and a year since Emily's been with someone else."

Hotch felt a familiar pain start to build around his temples. "We've been married for four years now, and she cheated just when we decided that we wanted to get pregnant. Its a man that I know and a man that I have to see every single day when I go to work."

Dr. Phlurp looked back over to Emily. "You cheated with his coworker?"

Emily gave a sad nod. "Yes."

"And you two both work at the same place, right?"

"Yeah."

The older man shook his head. "So you not only had an affair with his coworker, but your coworker. Now just so everyone in the audience and at home can understand, I'm talking about only one man."

Emily bit her lip, her eyes stinging. "Yes."

"Do you still see him?"

Emily quickly shook her head. "No. I see him at work when he's there, yes. But I'm no longer having an affair with him."

"Was this a one time thing?"

"Yes it was."

"What caused you to jump into the arms of another man?"

Emily felt her body shaking as she tried to avoid the gaze of her husband. "Aaron and I were having a fight, and it was one of the worst ones that we've ever had before than. He had been drinking and he'd insulted me over and over again in a span of maybe four hours."

"Oh it was longer than that, Em."

"No it wasn't."

Hotch rolled his eyes. "Alright. Go on."

Emily bit her lip before looking back to the host of the show. "When he finally passed out, I had a bruise on my face and I was pretty shaken up."

"Did he hit you?"

The brunette immediately shook her head. "No, he would never do that. He threw his beer bottle at the wall, and I didn't know if he was throwing it at me, so I tried to get out of the way but banged my head against the wall in the process." She took a breath as the host gave her a nod to continue. "After I finished cleaning up the glass, I got a call from him."

Dr. Phlurp sighed. "'Him' is the man you had an affair with?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

Emily bit her lip. "He called to see if I had taken his file by mistake, and I don't know why but I thought that he would understand if I vented to him. So I asked him to come over."

"Now let me get this straight. While your husband was passed out in your bedroom, you invited a man over and proceeded to do things that are seemingly very inappropriate with him."

"Yes."

"And was your son asleep in his bedroom while this went on?"

Emily shook her head. "No, he was sleeping over at his aunt's."

Dr. Phlurp nodded, looking over to the camera with tired looking eyes. "Well be right back."


	2. Chapter 2

The older man watched as the brunette to his right take a tissue from her pocket and dab it under her eyes just as they came back from a commercial break. "Are you alright?"

Emily gave a nod, her sniffle practically echoing through the silent room. "I'm fine. I'm just a little overwhelmed."

Hotch quickly reached into his jacket's breast pocket and took out his handkerchief, leaning across the big space that separated him and his wife, and gave it to the younger woman. "Here."

Emily looked to the brunette with a thankful glance, nodding her head as she wiped it under her nose. "Thank you."

"Now that was very sweet," Dr. Phlurp looked to the man on his left, "why would you do that for her?"

The brunette man furrowed his brows. "She's my wife."

"So you still care for her and love her?"

Hotch gave a sigh before nodding his head. "I've been in love with her for the past thirteen years. Its hard to erase that kind of history."

The older man nodded his head. "So you've known each other for thirteen years?"

Emily smiled as she looked to the host. "He was a security guard for my family when I was eighteen, and now has been my boss for two years. We kept in touch when I went off to college and my second day on the job, he asked me out and took me on our first date."

Hotch nodded, giving a small smile to his wife that sat across from him. "I remember that."

Dr. Phlurp looked back over to the younger woman by his side. "So you have known your husband for so long, and you've loved him for so long, you have one child with him and have adopted his stepson, and you practically throw that all away after one fight?"

Emily's eyes immediately began to water once again as she gave a shaky nod of the head. "Yes."

"And you do it with someone that you have to lay your eyes on everyday? Someone that your husband has to see and reminds him of your affair every single day you both get to work?"

Emily turned her gaze from Dr. Phlurp to the frustrated brunette that sat across from her. "I know it was stupid, and I know that a couple of sorries won't make up for what I did to you, but I truly am sorry. I will do anything and everything I can do until you know how sorry I am."

"So you just expect me take you back in my arms and forget everything."

"No," Emily shook her head, her forehead scrunched as her mind raced, "I would never ask that of you. All I want to do is try and work this out, Aaron."

Dr. Phlurp slowly held up his hand, making Emily's gaze move over his way. "Now just hold on for one minute. I get that you're sorry and I know you never want this to happen again, correct?"

Emily quickly nodded. "Yes, of course."

"Well even if that's true, your husband's heart is severely shattered. Do you see how angry he is at the moment? He's actually shaking!"

Hotch just clenched his jaw.

"Now do you really wanna get this relationship repaired?"

Emily bit her lip. "Yes I do."

"Aaron, do you want this relationship repaired?"

Hotch gave a nod. "Of course I do."

The older man's eyes hardened. "Well this just can't be fixed over night. First off, we need to make sure that you both want to be together, and you've told me that you do. But now, Aaron, I want you to tell Emily how her cheating made you feel. You can't keep fuming about this for years and years and bursting and screaming at her when it gets to be too much."

"What do you want me to say?"

Emily bit her lip as she looked to her husband. "Tell me how shitty I made you feel, Aaron. Yell at me, I don't care! You need to say it and I need to hear it."

Hotch shook his head as he glared over to the younger woman. "I really don't think you want me to say what I'm thinking now."

Dr. Phlurp looked to the younger man at his side. "If you say something I don't like, then I'll tell you to stop."

The brunette felt his shoulders tense as his eyes connected with Emily's, watching as she rung the handkerchief between her fingers. "I just want to know what I did to deserve such disrespect. For as long as I remember, I have loved you and given you everything that you've wanted."

"Aaron, I-"

"Let. Me. Talk."

Emily slowly shrunk back into her seat with a small nod of the head. "I'm sorry."

Hotch tried to get a little more comfortable as he leaned his elbows on the tips of his knees. "I get that you were upset that we had a fight, but we've had fights before and never have either one of us run off with someone and do him or her in the God damn coat closet."

Emily gave a nod for him to continue, tears silently falling from her eyes.

"You have been the love of my life since I was twenty five, and you just throw me away like I'm nothing? Trust me, I get your mother and father fucked you up in the head, but we've gone to counseling!"

Dr. Phlurp quickly held up his hand. "Ok, turn down the language just a notch," he looked over to the brunette woman who quickly blew her nose into her husband's handkerchief, "now what is he talking about with your mother and father?"

Emily quickly shook her head. "My parents had one of the worst relationships and dumped it all on me when I was very young, but we've already discussed this with our therapist."

"Well ya' know what? For today, I'm your therapist. So tell me."

The brunette bit her lip. "When I was around three years old, my father had an affair with my mother's best friend. I was five when she finally forgave him, and right when they got back together, she had affairs with two other men just to get back at my father."

"So you grew up with things like this. What your father did is almost exactly the same with what you did to your husband."

Emily let out a shaky sigh. "I know."

The older man shifted in his seat. "Now I know that part of what they did when you were younger could easily have influenced you, but you're grown now and you have the mind, I hope, to stick by your partner. You and your husband's relationship is not your parents, Emily."


	3. Chapter 3

Dr. Phlurp switched his interest from Emily and looked over to the brunette man that sat by his side. "Now Aaron, I understand you're upset. And you have every right to be."

"You're damn right I do."

Emily shrunk back into her seat as she let her chin tremble.

"But what you're not seeing here is that she has a side to this too. A side that not make sense to you, but a side nonetheless."

Aaron gave a nod. "I know that."

Dr. Phlurp held a look of disbelief on his face. "Well have you listened to her side?"

"It never came up."

Emily bit her lip before shaking her head, looking at the brunette man that sat across from her. "What do you mean 'it never came up'? We try and talk about this all the damn time but all we talk about is how I hurt _you_ and I upset _you_. Trust me Aaron, I get that. But you've never once asked why I did what I did or how I felt afterwards."

Aaron let out a scoff. "Do you think I really cared? You're the one who hurt me."

"I get that! What you don't seem to be getting that I have a side too? Why do you never wanna hear my side?"

"You're the one who fucked another man!"

"Don't you blame all of this on me! YOU started all of this!"

Dr. Phlurp held up a hand and waited until both brunettes sat back in their seats. "Hold on for a moment, alright? Emily, are you just talking about the argument or did something else happen that we haven't spoken about just yet?"

Emily felt herself freeze, her eyes glancing over to her husband and watching as he gave a 'who cares' shrug of the shoulder. She bit her lip, looking back over to the host of the show with slight anxiousness held in her eyes. "It was about a month or so ago. I had woken up because Allison was crying, and just as I got out of bed I heard Aaron whisper his ex-wife's name."

The gray haired man felt a migraine coming on as he looked to the younger woman. "So you thought that he was having a dream about her?"

"I know he was, but that's not what bothered me."

"Then what did?"

Emily felt her heart begin to beat faster in her chest. "We were...being intimate, and he said her name instead of mine."

Dr. Phlurp gave a nod. "And how long after the dream mishap was this?"

"About a week or so."

"Ok," he looked to Aaron with confusion in his eyes, "are you not yet over your ex-wife?"

The younger man slowly shook his head, his hands clasped firmly between his knees. "Of course I am. I wouldn't have married Emily if I wasn't."

"Then why are you thinking so much about this woman?"

Aaron felt his eyes sting at the memory of his late ex-wife. "She passed away, and she's always the first thing I think of when I look at my son. He looks just like she did."

Emily shook her head. "That doesn't explain why you thought about her when we were making love."

"This is suppose to be about you, Emily! You and how you cheated!"

"I wouldn't have cheated if you at least tried and treated me like I was something important in your life!"

Aaron's mouth dropped open, his eyes looking to her to see if he had heard her right. He searched her dark eyes with his, watching as the sadness slowly crept back into their depths. "Emily, you're one of the most important people to me. I think about you every day and take pride in the fact that I was able to spot you before anyone else did."

Emily bit her lip, her eyes watering as she looked to her husband. "Then why don't you treat me like that?"

The brunette man gave a small sigh, rubbing his finger across the creases in his forehead. "Its complicated."


End file.
